The Defence Headquarters has described the allegation made by the Chief Executive Officer of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, as laughable.
OsunDailyNG reports that Tompolo had on Monday accused the Nigerian Navy of frustrating the war against crude oil theft in the Niger Delta.
Tompolo claimed that the Navy was working at cross purposes with other state actors and private security outfits tasked with surveillance over the country’s economic assets in the region.
He cited an instance when personnel from the Nigerian Navy openly confronted their counterparts from the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and officials of TSSNL in a desperate attempt to secure passage for oil thieves.
Reacting to the allegations on Thursday during the bi-weekly update on military operations, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba said, “As to the question regarding the Nigerian Navy and the CEO of Tantita, you see, I’m almost laughing because it’s laughable. But what I want to say about this situation is this: We seek cooperation, not conflict.
“That’s what we want, that’s what our people want, and that’s what Nigeria wants. We want to increase the crude oil production of our nation to help our economy. That is the mainstay of our economy. We don’t want all this back-and-forth. That’s not what we want. We are going to continue to try to work together. We are all partners.
“But all this cheap blackmail has to stop. Come on, we should move faster. We need to act in the best interest of our nation, particularly at this time when we need that revenue. We will work together with our partners.”
He also emphasised that the aim of the military’s counterinsurgency operations across the country is to locate terrorists and eliminate them wherever they are hiding.
Buba said, “The military is achieving this goal. We will bring overwhelming military force upon them in order to destroy them or force them to surrender. Indeed, we are achieving both. We are decimating them, and several of them have begun to surrender.”
